It's been 9days since I've had my last shampoo, and I'm not about to go running back, but I need to post some stuff that's happening to my hair to see if I can get some help/reassurance.

I have shoulder length, thick wavy blond hair. It's shiny and great on the top, but underneath is dry and wiry. I'm used to shampooing everyday and started to wean myself to every other day for about a month before I started no-poo. That helped, but I couldn't get to every 3days in between, mostly because I love how it is right after a wash.

So now I'm using the Herb Garden Chagrin Valley Shampoo bar and I think my issue is that I'm still washing every other day? I tried baking soda once, and while I got good results, I like to have something that smells good in the shower, it's like therapy in the morning. And I've rinsed with ACV, white vinegar or lemon juice (about 3tbsps in an 500ml water bottle of water). I like the ACV for it's effect on my hair, but again, that stuff is stinky. If I don't do a vinegar rinse it's impossible to comb out without feeling like I'm hurting my hair

So I didn't wash today, just wet my hair down to get rid of the pony tail crease and it dried crispy and combing it out was difficult. So I've turned my hair into a bit of an oil slick now with apricot oil (it's the lightest oil I have in the house) and will wash with the Honey Beer and Egg soap tomorrow I guess.

What's my next logical step to help me love this? I want to grow my hair to bra strap length, and I know it's growing because I've got short hair all the way around my crown from post partum hair loss (which is a whole other frustration itself).

Should I try a deep oil condition with coconut oil (I'm going to have to go out to get something)? Get a boar bristle brush? It would have to be stiff as my hair is very thick... can anyone recommend one online? Try honey?

My main issue is that this seems to be getting complicated, and I really don't have the time for complicated... am I just complicating things?

I've settled (for the moment, lol) on a bar with avocado and goatsmilk and a lemon juice rinse. My hair is softer than with bs/acv for some reason. I think it took longer than 9 days before I started being able to go 3-4 days without a cleansing wash. I think it takes a while for your scalp to adjust to not needing to produce so much oil.

If I feel like it's getting grimy I sometimes do a water wash in between days that I use the soap bar. I still rinse with the lemon rinse though, since I know the pH of our softened water is high and can leave my hair feeling too squeaky/rough.

I don't touch my hair with a comb or brush unless it's absolutely unavoidable. I shake it out by hanging my head down and running my fingers vigorously around the scalp, shaking the hairs apart from their wet clumpy look, and if there's a tangled area, pick it out gently with my fingers.

So that's all there is to it, the soap is my shampoo, the lemon is my conditioner and my hands are my brush.
I like to wash too, I am also a fragrance ho so I wash probably more than I need to even though I could get away with 2-3x a week. At this point I feel like my routine is less complicated than when I was using shampoo and conditioner and washing every day.

I did get a little dryness from the pool and started using a little natural gel-style hair product from Jessicurl, just to keep the frizzies down & make my waves stand out. I think coconut would probaby make a nice conditioning hot oil treatment but I'd personally avoid getting it on my scalp unless it felt dry too.

Thanks, it does help some. My hair is dry. I was with my mom and sister today and I felt their hair and mine is really dry.

I am making this complicated because it's new, I'm a perfectionist and I love to try new things. So I have to have some stick-to-it-iveness I think. My scalp is itchier now than it was when I started so I'm off to read up about fixing that. I think I'm going to try to add some honey in after I do some reading and go from there.

In my experience, the Chagrin Valley bars are so mild they won't remove any kind of heavy oil application, so I wouldn't try shampooing with them after a deep coconut oil treatment. You might, however, try rubbing a tiny speck of coconut oil (or a single drop of apricot oil) between your palms and smoothing that on the dry parts of your hair like a leave-in conditioner.

If your hair is thick and wavy a boar bristle brush is not likely to work well for you.

Kristin, I was hoping you'd appear here I am considering joining the longhair community but I'm afraid that I'll become addicted to another site and my kids are neglected enough right now. So I'm just lurking. That's an addiction in and of itself

Yeah, I'd read about your experience with the Chagrin bars and oil, so I was prepared for a bit of an oil slick for a while, but something needed to be done (I could hear it crackle when I put my fingers through it), so I used an egg and some EVOO and Castor Oil on my hair last night (I didn't have honey in the pantry like I thought). I washed it out with Dr. Bronners baby mild soap and a lemon juice rinse. This morning things were still greasy so I must confess that I shampooed my hair. It's even still a little greasy, but I think after a few days of just using the shampoo bars and a lemon juice or ACV rinse it will be okay. I hope. It is very soft in the spots it's not oily, but not as shiny as I'd like it. So after it calms down a bit I'm going to try honey. It's a work in progress and will probably be up in a clip for a bit but I hope it's healthier for it. The goal right now is health.

I wash with baking soda, then rinse with diluted lemon juice, but way less concentrated than what you said you used in your OP. I put a squirt, or two little squirts, into a cup of water, scrub that into my scalp and then rinse it out really well. I also rinse with the same diluted lemon juice on those days in between bs washes, and it really seems to help a lot.

when my hair gets too wiry and coarse, I condition with a tiny bit of cocoa butter I melted in the palms of my hands.